30 Things Hunters Do Best

Hunters are more than just good looking people carrying shotguns. There are number of things we do better than anyone else.

We are the best. Period.

1. Look Good in Camouflage

Camo goes through phases of high fashion, but we always look better in the deer stand or duck blind than anyone on the red carpet.

2. Get Up Early

Aw, you’ve been up since 6 a.m.? That’s cute. We were getting close to bag limit by then.*

*Skills at early rising are stronger on hunting days than office days.

3. Conservation

“Without hunting there would be no conservation.”

Hunters know that habitat and wildlife conservation are the future of our sport and we take it very seriously. Numerous hunting conservation organizations exist to secure the future of our game and our hunting grounds and we’re active members in a bunch of them.

4. Lie

5. Pack Efficiently

We can fit everything you need to shoot, dress, and pack a deer along with our stand, water, food, and first aid kit on our person. Getting ready for a move? Call your hunting buddy. Instead of Two Men and a Truck you’ll just need one guy and a Yeti cooler.

6. Eat

Nothing makes you hungrier than a day in the field chasing down your own dinner. It takes so much out of us that we have to eat extra for a few days after the hunt, and before the next one, and in the off season, to be ready. Pass the potatoes would you?

7. Cook

I felt the eye rolls from a few of you, but it’s true. Most of us know our way around the kitchen. We work hard to bring home dinner. You better believe we’re going to do it up right! Ask any of your hunting friends for game recipes and be prepared to listen for a while.

8. Help the Economy

According to the NSSF, the economic impact of hunters and target shooters is $110 billion! That’s $15 billion in taxes alone. More than 866,000 jobs are supported by the hunting and target shooting industry…so when you see the Dow Jones going up, you know it’s hunting season.

9. Sit

This one isn’t true of all of us, but many of us have the patience of a Buddhist monk when it comes to sitting still in a treestand or a blind. Our toes can be numb, fingers cold, and patience thin, but we will stick it out because it’s worth the prize.

10. Joke Around

This really goes along with the above. You can’t sit around waiting for a deer all day without the ability to entertain yourself, and that translates into joking around with others. That’s why there’s so much laughing around the campfire after a big hunt. Well, that and the beer.

11. Brag

We’re not saying that bragging is necessarily a good thing, but come on, ask me how my hunt was today. You know you want to…it was awesome! Biggest buck ever. No lie. My buddy said it was the hardest shot he’d ever seen anyone make.

12. Stand Up for Ourselves

As a hunter, you learn to stand up for what you believe in pretty quickly. We’ve dealt with the stereotypes, the haters, the PETA police, and we’ve learned how to let people know why we hunt, how it helps the environment and the country, and that we’re proud to be a part of this tradition.

13. Selectively Hear

Yeah, we admit it. Shotgun ear can block out a lot of what you’re saying, especially if it doesn’t sound like much fun at all, but if your cell phone rings in the next stand , you better believe we’re going to hear it.

14. Look Good in Orange

As a Volunteer fan myself, I know there are some people that might take offense to that, but to them I say, the best thing about that orange is you can wear it hunting friday and to the game on saturday. It takes a special rugged attractiveness to pull off blaze orange, and us hunters just have it. Bonus points for also being a U.T. fan.

15. Respect Nature

We get a bad rap for being Bambi killers, but the truth is, hunting is about way more than the kill. It’s about being out in wild, depending on nature to provide you dinner that night and surrounding yourself with all of God’s creations. We don’t hunt to destroy nature. We hunt to be a part of it.

More from Wide Open Spaces:

16. Be Quiet

You might have trouble shutting us up once you get us going, but when it’s time for silence we know how to honor it…and if you’re in our stand with us you better learn that real fast.

17. Tell Stories

We’re not saying they’re all going to be real, but they will be entertaining. My family loves my stories about the buck I missed, the quail I turned into beak and bones, and the time I was attacked by a ferret that was hunting grouse. Go ahead, ask about our last hunting trip. You won’t regret it.

18. Teach Kids about Gun Safety

One great thing about hunting is that it teaches you to respect a firearm. It’s an obvious example that guns can mean the difference between life and death. “Red means dead” was one of the first phrases my son learned and while he’s still not old enough to carry a gun, he will tell you everything you need to know about staying safe around one.

19. Teach Kids About Nature

In addition to being handy about teaching future generations proper gun protocol, we’re also handy at passing on information regarding the habitats and species we hunt. We might not be able to map out the digestive tract of a giant panda, but we can tell you everything you need to know about where grouse live, what deer eat, what conditions are prime for quail mating, what is threatening mountain lion habitat, etc.

20. Love Our Dogs

If you have a hunting dog, you already know this. Hunting dogs are like house dogs times, I don’t know, a million maybe. That’s not to say that house dogs aren’t also great, they are, but if you’ve ever seen a hunter with his dog, well, that’s true love right there. It’s everything that’s perfect about dogs, plus they get out in nature with you and help you enjoy the best pastime on Earth.

21. Habitat Maintenance

Controlled burns, planting, harvesting…you name it, we do it, to keep our habitat up to snuff.

22. Trail Game

Nothing helps learning to track game more than a strong desire to find that game. We know prints, droppings, nipple marks and hair. We’re basically like CSI in the woods.

23. Know Where to Travel

Little known fact: the most beautiful places in the world are generally also teeming with the best animals to hunt. From Argentina to Ecuador, Africa to America, we’ve got a bucket list of the places we want to hunt, and we guarantee you’ll want to see them too.

24. Spend

Housewives are generally stereotyped to be loose with the purse strings, but buddy hunters are no scrooges. Maybe we’re efficient in our daily needs, but as Cabela’s, Bass Pro, and Gander Mountain’s sales can attest, we are willing to spend for our sport. No wonder we keep the economy moving.

25. Wildlife Management

Species overpopulated? We can help with that. Species underpopulated? We’re here to help with that too. The second might seem like an oxymoron (hunters kill stuff right?!) but in order for us to have animals to hunt safely and ecologically we need a stable population. If numbers of our favorite game start dwindling, we’re on the front lines to get them back up to par.

26. Share

This one might be surprising, but it’s true. We’ll share our stories, we can’t wait to share our meals, we’ll share information about what products we use, where we shop, just about anything really. Except our hunting spot. That’s our little secret.

27. Endorse

When we love a product, we will tell you all about it. You’ll find we tend to have loyalty to which gun manufacturers we use, which training collar, brand of deer stand, duck calls, etc. We find something we like and we stick with it, then tell everyone about it.

28. Have Fun

Obviously. If you don’t know hunters are the most fun, you haven’t spent enough time with one yet.

29. Lend a Hand

Whether you need help stringing your bow, cleaning your gun, or just need someone to tell stories and have a good time with, we’re your people. Hunters are a community always seeking new members so we’re always ready to help out.